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South Korean Officials Accused of Political Meddling

SEOUL, South Korea — The Defense Ministry in South Korea said Thursday that at least 11 officials at its cyberwarfare unit, created four years ago to fight North Korean propaganda, had spread 2,100 online political messages praising President Park Geun-hye and her party or attacking their domestic opponents ahead of her election a year ago.

Military investigators asked prosecutors to indict the officials on charges of violating a law that bans public servants from meddling in domestic politics, the chief investigator, Maj. Gen. Baek Nak-jong, said at a news conference. But he said that the cyberwarfare specialists’ actions did not amount to trying to influence the election, a far more serious crime. The general said the specialists had no such intention and had criticized opposition parties and their members merely to defend the prior conservative government’s policies. Ms. Park won the election by a margin of a million votes.

The opposition Democratic Party called the military investigation an outrageous whitewash intended to prevent political fallout against Ms. Park.

The Defense Ministry started an investigation two months ago after the opposition claimed that not only the country’s National Intelligence Service but also its military had conducted an aggressive online smear campaign to undermine the popularity of Ms. Park’s opponents to help her win the election.

Intelligence officials, including a former head of the spy agency, are on trial on charges of running a team of agents who prosecutors said posted thousands of political messages on blogs and spread 1.2 million Twitter messages to try to sway public opinion in favor of Ms. Park ahead of the election.

The agents praised government policies while ridiculing Ms. Park’s opposition rivals as untrustworthy, pro-North Korean sympathizers, according to prosecutors. Ms. Park, who won the election as the candidate of the governing conservative Saenuri Party a year ago Thursday, has denied directing or benefiting from the campaign. Her approval ratings remain relatively high at 55 percent, according to a survey conducted in the second week of December by Realmeter, a Seoul-based polling group.

But her first year in office has been troubled by a standoff with the opposition over its allegation that an illegal smear campaign had helped her win the election.

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In recent weeks, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist and other religious groups have issued separate statements demanding that Ms. Park resign, saying that her election was illegal. Ms. Park’s office and her party dismissed the demands, calling the religious figures involved radical demagogues.

Since the military’s cyberwarfare command was begun in January 2010, General Baek said it has spread 280,000 messages through blogs, Twitter and other Internet sites. Most were used to counter what South Korea considered North Korean propaganda on the Internet, such as Pyongyang’s denial of involvement in the 2010 sinking of a South Korean navy ship that killed 46 sailors, he said.

But General Baek said that the cyberwarfare officials had violated their political neutrality in 15,000 messages, and that 2,100 of them were used to attack Ms. Park’s political opponents. One such message called Ms. Park’s main rival — the opposition party’s presidential candidate, Moon Jae-in — “not qualified to become the top commander of the military.”

General Baek said the military was considering reprimanding the current commander of the cyberwarfare unit and his immediate predecessor for a lack of oversight. But he said the two commanders were not directly involved in sending the political messages — a finding the opposition party called a whitewash. One of the commanders, Yeon Jae-wook, who led the unit until October last year, is now a senior military aide in Ms. Park’s presidential office.

The scandals involving the National Intelligence Service and the military have deeply divided the country. Conservative supporters of Ms. Park accuse the opposition of exaggerating the significance of the political messages to undermine Ms. Park’s authority.

A version of this article appears in print on December 20, 2013, on Page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: South Korean Officials Accused of Political Meddling. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe